(1) Although most studies emphasise the similarity of the australopithecines to modern man, and suggest, therefore, that these creatures were bipedal tool-makers at least one form of which (Australopithecus africanus--"Homo habilis", "Homo africanus") was almost directly ancestral to man, a series of multivariate statistical studies of various postcranial fragments suggests other conclusions.
(2) Advances in techniques for absolute dating and reassessments of the fossils themselves have rendered untenable a simple unilineal model of human evolution, in which Homo habilis succeeded the australopithecines and then evolved via H. erectus into H. sapiens-but no clear alternative consensus has yet emerged.
(3) The fossil evidence suggests that Homo habilis and Paranthropus may have attained a similar grade of bipedality at roughly 1.8 m.y.
(4) The one early hominid to show a significant departure from this adaptive pattern toward later hominids-cranially, dentally, and postcranially-is H. habilis from East Africa.
(5) Species of the Australopithecus genus were twin species for Homo habilis and H. erectus.
(6) Results indicate that there is no empirical basis for using a CV of 10 as a standard to detect multiple species in H. habilis.
(7) Supporters of this view used a CV of 10 as a standard to determine that 1) the H. habilis CV of 12.7 indicates multiple species and 2) there is a low probability of H. habilis specimens KNM-ER 1470 and KNM-ER 1813 being members of the same taxon.
(8) Using hindlimb joint size of specimens of relatively certain taxonomy and assuming these measures were more like those of modern humans than of apes, the male and female averages are as follows: Australopithecus afarensis, 45 and 29 kg; A. africanus, 41 and 30 kg; A. robustus, 40 and 32 kg; A. boisei, 49 and 34 kg; H. habilis, 52 and 32 kg.
(9) Endocranial volume (ECV) variability as measured by the coefficient of variation (CV) has been important in supporting the view that more than one species is represented in Homo habilis.
(10) Additionally, the broad 95% statistical confidence limits (5.1-20.3) indicate that the CV estimate of 12.7 for H. habilis is not sufficiently reliable to allow biologically meaningful interpretation.
(11) Significant differences in the coefficient of variation exist between all possible pairs of taxa with the exception of Homo habilis and Homo erectus.
(12) The evidence from ECV variability does not support the argument for multiple species in H. habilis.
(13) Language with this property therefore presumably evolved with the Homo line somewhere between H. habilis and H. sapiens sapiens.
(14) This specimen's craniodental anatomy indicates attribution to Homo habilis, but its postcranial anatomy, including small body size and relatively long arms, is strikingly similar to that of some early Australopithecus individuals.
(15) However, if the CV for H. habilis is actually 12.7, it still falls within the range of variation for single species of modern hominoids.
(16) Both phenomena may go back at least to Homo habilis, 2-3 million years ago.
(17) Non-dental criteria were used to allocate the specimens into four major taxonomic categories (EAFROB, EAFHOM, SAFROB and SAFGRA), approximating to the hypodigms of, respectively, A. boisei, H. habilis and Homo sp., A. robustus and A. africanus.
(18) The new find supports the view that the Sterkfontein toolmaker was not the earlier A. africanus, but a later hominid related to Homo habilis.
(19) The discovery suggests meat was on the menu far back in our evolutionary history, and long before the arrival of the first human species, Homo habilis , 2.3m years ago.
(20) Guests included General Haidar Saleh Habili and the Sultan of Shabwan.
(1) Mrs Kean's Lady Macbeth he recalls as "a queer hooped and hook-nosed figure, of large circumference and archaic attire, strange tasteless toggery".